A designated court on Thursday extended by four days the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) custody of Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain in an alleged money laundering case involving a company in Kolkata.
Special Judge Geetanjli Goel extended Jain's custody till June 13 on the ED’s application that sought his custody for five more days. Jain's nine-day ED custody was ending on Thursday before the agency sought extension of his custodial interrogation.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju for the ED submitted that during the remand they had conducted eight searches of the premises of Lala Sher Singh memorial trust where Jain was president and certain incriminating material was found, including cash and documents.
However, Jain has denied that he was part of the trust during interrogation.
Raju told the court that the agency needed to confront Jain with the documents gathered during the searches. The ED said that some of the witnesses said they should not be taken in front of Jain as they feared for their safety.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Jain, opposed the ED's application, saying the accused was already in ED's custody and there was no ground to further extend his custody.
ED's Special Public Prosecutor NK Matta had told the court that the agency had arrested Jain in an alleged money laundering case. In the afternoon, Jain was admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) for three hours after he complained of uneasiness.
The court also directed the authorities to subject him to daily health check-up. An ultrasound was also performed as he complained of stomach ache besides sleep issues.
The ED had initiated the money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI on August 24, 2017 under relevant Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act a against Jain, his wife Poonam Jain, Ajit Prasad Jain, Sunil Kumar Jain, Vaibhav Jain, son of Ajit Prasad Jain and Ankush Jain, son Sunil Kumar Jain.